I'll Be There
by PhantomDinosaurs
Summary: HS AU; Phil Lester is a transfer student to the United States. AmazingPhilxOC
1. Chapter 1

Phil POV

My eyes widened in amazement as I walked down the halls of my new school. The school I went to back in England was nowhere near this big. There better be some hidden portal to Narnia or something or I was going to be seriously pissed off. I read the yellow slip of paper that the school had mailed me, which was a map of the school, and found my way to the office, where I was supposed to check in, since it was my first day. The lady at the reception desk, a middle-aged blonde who dressed a bit too young, looked me over, taking in my appearance, from my Nyan Cat t-shirt to the black jeans I had thrown on. It was a little creepy, seeing her analyze me from head to toe. WHAT DID SHE WANT FROM ME?!

"Um," I said awkwardly, "I'm new. They told me I was supposed to report here on my first day?" She seemed taken aback by my British accent. I really hoped I wasn't going to get this reaction all day. But then again, America had this unusual obsession with the British that I'll never understand. Was it because Kinder eggs are actually legal in Britain?

"Yes, and what is your name?" she replied sharply, bringing me back to reality.

"Phil. Philip Lester."

"Ah, yes," she said as she rifled through a folder of papers. She handed me another yellow paper (seriously, what was with Americans and yellow paper?), which had my schedule on it. "You're here kind of early, so you can go sit in the cafeteria 'til the bell rings."

"Yeah, okay." I awkwardly walked out of the office and located the cafeteria on the school map. I missed Dan, my best friend. The new house felt really empty without his constant presence. Why did my dad have to get a new job here? Whatever. I sighed and sat down at a random table. I took out a book from my knapsack, Skulduggery Pleasant, and pretended to read.

"Hey." I looked up from my book to see a smiling chestnut-haired girl. "I'm Jenna. I haven't seen you around before and I wanted to ask you if you wanted to join me in the library with my friend." I nodded. She looked nice, so what was the harm? I got up and followed her down a hallway and into the library.

The library was divided up into two sections: the books section, and the section with tables and computers and stuff for studying and such. I started toward the tables, but surprisingly, Jenna was walking into the book section. Confused, I followed her into the very back corner. Another girl was sitting there, typing on a laptop. She looked up when she saw Jenna. She noticed me standing behind her, and moved her gaze from Jenna to me, taking in my appearance. Again, my face felt a bit warm, but it wasn't the same type of embarrassment that I felt when I talked to the lady in the office,

"Finally, Jenna," she said jokingly, "Moved on from Harrison?" She smiled. She had dark hair, in a sort of innocent emo type style, which now that I think about it, is quite contradictory. Her thoughtful brown eyes studied me, and I felt like I was melting.

"Shut up, Marly," Jenna replied, "This is Phil. He's new so I thought that maybe Alexxis and them hadn't corrupted him into hating us yet. And no, I have not moved on from Harrison yet, and I don't see it coming anytime soon. Harrison is the perfect boy for me, he just doesn't know it yet." Marly sniggered. "And I heard that," Jenna continued.

"Hi, Phil," said Marly, "So you're new? Well, I hope you realize that if you have any intention of being popular, you should run away now. In fact, I think any shred of a reputation you might have had with Alexxis and her people is probably up in flames." I pondered her word usage, "up in flames." It reminded me too much of Dan for some reason. Dan, who probably would've gotten both of us kicked out by now, if he was here. I imagined him talking back to the office lady. Surely, Dan would have given her several heart attacks, with his frequent usage of "tits" and "placenta." Suddenly, the bell rang and I looked up at the clock. 7:25. Five minutes before the start of school.

"What's your first period?" asked Jenna.

"Um, English, with Mr….Grayson."

"Huh, me too," said Marly, "Watch out. Today's the day he's supposed to assign us groups for our group projects. Come on, we can walk to class together." She closed her laptop and stood up.

Jenna smirked. "They look sort of perfect together," I thought I heard her mutter to herself. God, Marly was cute.


	2. Chapter 2

Marly POV

I walked alongside Phil as we made our way upstairs to Mr. Grayson's room. "Tell me about yourself," I said to him. I found his British accent adorable, and I wanted to hear more of it. Of course, I couldn't voice this opinion out loud. I was already worried that I had been too snarky, too sarcastic, and had already pushed him away from the possibility of friendship.

"Well," he started, "I like lions. And socks. And Muse, the band."

He liked Muse?! This was amazing. I marked him down as a possible new best friend. "So you're from Britain?," I asked.

"Yeah, it's a lot different from here. For one thing, your Fanta is, like, this radioactive orange. I honestly don't think it's safe." I laughed at his reply. We turned the corner and walked into Mr. Grayson's class. I sat down at my usual seat, in the very back corner. Unfortunately, Phil followed me, but then again, where else was he going to sit? I was counting on being alone so I could shamelessly scroll through pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant on Tumblr while Mr. Grayson was lecturing. Oh, the Tennant.

I heard a set of heels clicking toward our table and saw Holly and Alexxis, two of the "popular" girls, standing in front of Phil. I wasn't really a fan of Holly, but she was nicer to me than any of the other popular girls were. She wasn't as shallow and actually did well in school. Also, she never threw fries at me every time I passed her lunch table, which was a plus. So I didn't hate her like I hated her friends. I just sort of wondered why she was friends with them. Alexxis, of course, was a totally different story.

"Are you Phil?!" Alexxis squealed.

"Er, yeah," Phil said.

"OMG, I love your videos!" she exclaimed. Did she really just say "OMG" in a non-Facebook chat or texting situation?

"Um, thank you. Here, you can have…INFINITE WAFFLES." I sat there, watching Phil and Alexxis's exchange. What did Alexxis mean by Phil's videos? I felt a strange surge of jealousy. How the hell did Alexxis already know Phil? She giggled and lightly touched Phil's arm. This was not okay.

"Where's Dan?" Holly chimed in. Who the hell was Dan?

"Well, he's back in England. My dad moved us here for his work, so, yeah…"

"So, I was wondering if you'd like to come over this Saturday? Maybe I could show you around the city?" Holly asked. She did a little hair flip thing that really annoyed the hell out of me. Phil looked at me, a slightly terrified expression on his face.

Okay, first, let me get this straight. I did not have a crush on Phil, because, well, I already had a sort-of boyfriend, but I did get annoyed at Alexxis. Seriously, how did she already know Phil. Was he some sort of celebrity? I was bored, and considered taking out my laptop and scrolling through Tumblr, to look at the Cumberbatch, but I decided against it. For some reason, it seemed kind of rude to leave Phil on his own to these girls, especially since he was looking so uncomfortable.

"Um, no, sorry," Phil said, "I still have to settle into the new house." He smiled briefly at her and looked away. It was then that the tardy bell rang and Alexxis and Holly quickly clicked their heels away and sat back down at their tables across the room. Mr. Grayson was late, as usual, so Phil and I still had a bit of time to talk before he came in.

"What did she mean by your videos?" I asked Phil.

"Oh, I sort of do this YouTube thing where I make videos for the internet," he said, blushing slightly. I raised an eyebrow. "Not those kinds of videos!" he added quickly. It was obvious that he was embarrassed about it. I immediately pulled out my school laptop (and yes, the school felt the need to give every student their own laptop, which, to me was an incredible waste of money. Also, the school didn't feel the need to block websites. Not that I was complaining.) and went to YouTube. "Hey!" Phil said.

"Mkay, so I'm just going to need the name of your channel," I said. Phil shook his head. "Embarrassed?" I asked, smirking.

"I just don't need another fangirl," muttered Phil. Nevertheless, I typed "phil" into the search bar, and scrolled through a long list of channels until I found his face. Apparently, his channel was "AmazingPhil." Huh. How modest. "You've already found it, haven't you," said Phil, a little grumpily.

"Yep," I said, "And I intend to watch them the moment I get home." Just then, Mr. Grayson walked into the classroom. The entire room quickly hushed and turned toward the front, and I quickly closed the laptop, and stowed it away in my messenger bag.

"Good morning, class," Mr. Grayson announced in a pretentious, psuedo-British accent. He was one of those teachers who were fresh out of college and felt the need to prove themselves, even when it wasn't necessary. It was kind of funny actually, how often he was completely wrong about the subject material.

"Today, I will be assigning partners for your project, but first, we have a new student. Philip? Would you like to introduce yourself?" he continued, looking directly into our corner of the classroom.

"Er, y-yeah," Phil stuttered. He awkwardly walked to the front of the classroom. "Um, I'm Phil, and I just moved here from Manchester, England for my dad's work. So…" he trailed off. He looked at Mr. Grayson, who nodded at Phil, dismissing him from the front. Phil, who looked relieved, made his way back to our table and sat down. I heard half the girls in the class, giggling and whispering among themselves about his accent.

"Well that was a nightmare," Phil said to me, "Is Mr. Grayson some sort of posh person?"

"Nah, he's just faking it," I replied. Mr. Grayson was talking again, so I turned back to the front of the room.

"Now, for your group projects. I will be pairing you with one other person, with whom you shall complete the assignment. First, I'll assign the groups, and then, I shall go over what you students are to do." He rattled off a list of names, which I didn't really pay attention to. I just listened for my name and looked around the room for people who wouldn't be too bad to partner up with. Phil, of course, came first to my mind, but I had a feeling it would be too good to actually happen. My mind wandered over to my sort-of boyfriend, Connor (who wasn't actually in the class, I just started thinking about him), who I had a feeling Phil would get along with. If he did, Phil would be fully integrated in our friendship group, or, as Jenna, Connor, and I called it, our Little Group of Losers.  
My reverie was interrupted by Mr. Grayson saying "Marly, since you already seem to be friends with Philip, you two can be in a group so you can show him our, ah, American customs." I internally cheered. I looked over at Phil and grinned. The teacher continued droning, listing off names of people I didn't care about. Were there really this many people in the class? Mr. Grayson reclaimed my attention by stopping and finally beginning to tell us what this huge project was actually about. He'd been casually mentioning it for the past few weeks, enigmatically inserting it into almost every lesson, generally being a huge douchebag about it. It was a little disappointing to see what it actually was, a simple book report, two pages double-spaced, on the book of our choice, except he had to approve it before we started.

"Well that was anticlimactic," I said to Phil, "He's been going on and on about it all semester, saying how amazing it was, but then it turns out to be just a book report?"

"I'm just glad I wasn't paired up with one of them," he said, gesturing toward Holly and Alexxis. They were complaining loudly that they hadn't been put together for the book report, which I found to be extremely hilarious.

"Yeah, that would have been pretty horrible. I'm sure if you were Alexxis's partner, though, she would be pretty happy," I said.

"Don't even mention it," Phil groaned, "But I'm glad we're going to be doing it together."

"Well, I look forward to getting to know you," I glanced at the clock. We were leaving in about five minutes. "What's your next class?" I asked him.

"Um, math with…Mrs. Byrd," he said, looking down at his yellow schedule. Dammit, I was hoping to get to know him better.

"Good luck with her," I said, "There are rumors that last year, she made a girl cry because the girl's sweater wasn't the right shade of navy blue." The rumor was actually true, but I didn't want to scare Phil too much, the poor guy. I'd had Mrs. Byrd last year, and while she didn't have too much against me, it was still a horrible experience. "So I'll see you at lunch then?" I continued.

"Yeah," Phil said, nodding and smiling.

"Meet me and Jenna in the library, where we were this morning," I said. We always eat there, because the cafeteria is usually a nightmare. Also, you might want to bring lunch from now on. You'll see."

We got up from our seats as the bell rang and walked away to our next class, Phil to math, and I to French, which happened to be the one of the two classes I shared with Jenna.


	3. Chapter 3

Math class was a blur. Mrs. Byrd wasn't as bad as I expected. I went through pretty much the same routine as I did that morning, introducing myself and sitting in the back corner, trying to go by as unnoticed as possible. Unfortunately, my British accent largely prevented this, and I was surrounded by a group of people immediately after class ended. I nodded some, smiled a bit, made some excuses, and escaped as quickly as possible to the cafeteria.

Marly was right. The cafeteria was a total nightmare. Crowds of bustling teenagers, all shouting at their friends, trying to get into the lunch line. I was lucky to escape with my life! I waited impatiently in line for my food and hurried into the library to meet Marly and Jenna. As I walked down the connecting hallway, I glanced down at what the lunch lady had given me. It seemed to be a sandwich of some sort, but I couldn't exactly tell what kind of meat was inside. Either way, there was no way that I was going to eat it. Maybe I could feed it to Lion, my kitten, who my parents had bought for me as a bribe for moving here, when I got home. (They had also gotten me a car, which seemed a bit excessive, but I wasn't complaining.)

I turned the corner and walked through the open double doors of the library. The librarian sitting at the circulation desk seemed to recognize me from this morning, as she smiled pleasantly at me as I walked past. I continued my way to the back of the library, where Marly, Jenna, and I had gone this morning and saw them sitting down, their packed lunches from home spread out around them like a picnic. There was another guy there, with one arm draped around Marly's shoulder. She looked up at me when she saw me walk in and smiled.

"Hi, Phil!" she said happily, "This is Connor, I don't think you've met him yet." Connor briefly waved and half-smiled. He was skinny, with dirty-blond hair, and wore khakis and a polo. Basically, he looked nerdy, probably was nerdy (or else he wouldn't have been Marly's friend) and I was insanely jealous of him and I wished that I knew Marly well enough that it wouldn't be weird to put my arm around her shoulder and I just really liked her okay? It was weird. I'd only known Marly for a short period of time, but I was fascinated by everything she did and everything about her.  
"How was the cafeteria, Phil?" asked Jenna, looking at my sandwich in disgust.

"It was horrible," I said, "I think the people in there were raised by demon wolves or something. Also, what the heck is in this sandwich?"  
"No one knows," said Connor mysteriously, "They say that the lunch meat in the cafeteria is totally immune to the five second rule, because even the bacteria don't want it." Marly laughed a snuggled in closer to Connor. Were they...? I shook the thought out of my head. Didn't Jenna mention earlier that Marly was completely single? No, she had said we looked cute together, which would imply singleness.

"So what was that huge project that Mr. Grayson keeps going on about?" Jenna asked Marly.

"Oh, that? It's just a freaking book report," scoffed Marly, "Which, I honestly can't believe he actually thought that was creative in any way."

"Give him a break, he's new," Connor said gently. He took a bite out of a sandwich he had packed, where the bread was nice and white, and the ham was recognizable.

"I'll give him a break when he can actually teach," Marly retorted. She glanced up at me. "What did you think of him?" she asked me.

"He was all right, I guess. A bit posh, and he doesn't seem very competent," I said vaguely. Marly turned to look at Connor triumphantly.

"Ha! Phil agrees with me. And for that, and also so that he has something other than poison to eat for lunch, he is rewarded with half of my completely edible  
lunch, which happens to be cereal, because cereal is definitely a lunch food," said Marly. She wasn't kidding either. She had brought corn flakes in a plastic container, with milk in a separate Thermos. She poured the milk into the plastic container and then transferred half the completed cereal into the thermos. She handed me the plastic container and a spoon.

"Thanks," I said gratefully.

"Wasn't the project going to be a group project?" asked Jenna suddenly.

"Oh, right, yeah! I actually get to work with someone I don't completely hate!" said Marly.

"Who?" asked Connor, "You hate everybody." Marly shoved him. She was as violent as Dan.

"Not everyone," she protested, "Just you. Anyway, Mr. Grayson actually paired me with Phil, so for once, I'm actually looking forward to a group project." My insides warmed..

"Really?" Jenna asked, an eyebrow raised, "Grayson actually made a group in which both members were satisfied with?" She turned to me. "Unless, of course, there was this totally hot chick in English that you really wanted to be paired with, of course." I wanted to say that there was, and then sexily glance at Marly, which is what Dan probably would have done, but I, being Phil, sort of just chuckled awkwardly and cast my eyes down.

"Alexxis was totally hitting on him earlier," Marly mentioned.

"No, Marly. You are not allowed to ever bring that up ever again," I laughed. We continued lunch, continued our happy banter, until the bell rang and we each got up and went to our respective classes. The rest of the day passed by in a blur. I went to my classes, gave the standard awkward introductory speech, and sat quietly back down. It wasn't so bad, though. Marly was in three other of my classes, which was a lot, and I also shared one class with Jenna. At the end of the day, I stood on the bus loop, and I saw Marly walking toward me. I waved my hand in greeting.

"Hey," she said, "Which bus are you on?"

"Er, number 21, I think," I replied, trying to remember.

"Really? That's mine, too!? she said excitedly, "Why weren't you on the bus this morning?"

"Oh, my mum drove me because she thought it would make a better impression if I arrived early or something," I said.

"You Brits are weird." We boarded our bus and chose a seat toward the back. We spent the entire bus ride, talking, getting to know each other. I told her about Youtube, how I made videos and stuff. She said she already knew. Apparently, she had been watching them in her study hall. At least she knew that it wasn't those kinds of videos. The bus eventually turned into my neighborhood and screeched to a halt. I grabbed my bag, and at the same time, Marly grabbed hers.

"Is this your stop, too?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Wait, you're our new neighbor?" she replied incredulously, "This is amazing. I WILL HAVE A NEIGHBORHOOD FRIEND. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS IMPORTANCE, PHILIP?"

"Um, not entirely," I said. Marly stood up and scoffed.

"Come on," she said, smiling, and I followed her down the bus aisle. We stood on the sidewalk as the bus drove away and began walking. It was a short walk, since the bus stop was only a few houses away from ours. Marly stopped in front of my house, gazing at it thoughtfully.

"Our old neighbors, the ones who used to live here, were really nice. When I was little, I'd hide in their backyard, right behind that really big tree. Of course, they knew I was there, but they'd pretend they didn't and say 'Hmm, I just baked this fresh batch of cookies, but I have no one to share them with. Does anyone know anyone who could help me?' And then I'd come running out from behind the tree, and they'd invite me in for cookies."

I listened to her reminiscence, thinking about what she would have been like as a kid. "Of course," she continued, "The wife passed away last year and the husband started drinking. Now he lives with his son." I heard sadness in her voice and put an arm around her shoulder. She jumped, however, and I quickly returned my arm to my side. Smooth, Phil.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Phil," she said, a little too brightly, and quickly turned around and walked away, along the pavement, back to her house. I watched her as she pulled out her keys from her messenger bag and let herself inside, disappearing. I reached inside my pocket for my keys, but I didn't feel them. I then remembered them sitting there, on my desktop. I hadn't even thought about the fact that I would need them. Mentally slapping myself, I sat down on the front porch and waited for my mum to come home. A few minutes, later, I heard a door open and I looked up. It was Marly.

"Forget your keys?" she asked, trying not to laugh.

"No, I'm just waiting...for..." I trailed off, trying to think of something.

"You mean you forgot your keys?" Marly asked again.

"Yeah," I admitted.

"Come on, you can come in our house until your parents get home or something," she said, still trying not to laugh. She motioned for me to follow her, but I hesitated.

"Will your parents be okay with it?"

"Yeah, they're out of town this week, so it's just me," she shrugged. I followed her into her house and looked around, taking in the decor. It was a small house, pleasantly smelling of cinnamon and vanilla. Marly led me into the living room, where there was a nest of pillows and blankets set up on the sofa, with a laptop and some textbooks sitting in the middle.

"So...do you want to get to work on that project?" Marly asked, after a period of time.

"Uh, yeah, okay," I stammered. Marly looked like she wanted to laugh again, but restrained herself.

"Okay, we should probably start with what book we want to do. I, personally want to do a John Green book, more specifically The Fault in Our Stars."

"That sounds good," I agreed. And it was, and it wasn't. Over the next few weeks, Marly and I met at her house after school, reading our copy of TFIOS. We read separately, her curled up on a beanbag chair and I sprawled out on the floor, but the silence was never awkward. In fact, I think it brought us closer, somehow.

What was not okay was the book. It wasn't bad, far from it, but it was my first John Green novel, and...well, let's just say Marly's mum gave us some strange looks when she got home from work and found us both sobbing in Marly's room. We eventually finished and wrote our book report together. It was very enjoyable, as Marly was a great writer. The day before it was due, Marly printed it out, two pages exactly, and placed it triumphantly in her school binder.

"Am I still allowed to come here after school?" I asked uncertainly.

"I am insulted that you even felt the need to ask," said Marly.

I had moved to America around early November, and soon, it was Thanksgiving. We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving back in Manchester, but apparently, my parents wanted to "embrace the American culture." Which is how I ended up asking Marly if she could come over to my house for Thanksgiving. Facepalm for Phil, I know.


End file.
